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The laundry workers fighting to keep their jobs told their stories on Tuesday.
The Interior Health Authority (IHA) Board heard a presentation on Tuesday as laundry workers and the Hospital Employee’s Union (HEU) continued their campaign against the possible privatization of hospital laundry services. Two laundry workers from Kelowna and Kamloops spoke, as well as the HEU Financial Secretary Donisa Bernardo.
“It’s tough, dirty and potentially dangerous work as you can imagine,” said Bernardo, “with our members constantly on guard to avoid needle-stick injuries and exposure to biohazards.” She went on to talk about all the people behind the tens of thousands of pounds of laundry that are processed by their members in the IHA and how both they and the hospitals will be affected if the work is privatized.
Rhonda Studer, a laundry worker at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, argued that keeping the laundry service local helps workers to meet local needs timely and efficiently. She said that local laundry workers can accommodate patients who allergic to detergent, return lost items, and respond quickly to last-minute requests and additional needs when the hospital is running over capacity.
Jessica Guthrie, who’s been a laundry worker at Kelowna General Hospital for the past four years, told the board that though her job isn’t glamorous, it’s essential for the hospital to keep going. “We come in every day and work as hard as we can to make sure that the patients of the Interior are provided with clean, sterile, linen,” said Guthrie. “Without that, there would be no hospital admissions, no surgeries, but there would certainly by more infections.”
Guthrie spoke about her husband being laid off three times in two years because of falling oil prices, and how her job is her family’s main means of support. Now, she says that she could lose her home. Barnardo also talked about several other hard-working workers, including single mothers, who rely on their wages and benefits.
Guthrie joined her fellow laundry workers in travelling to Victoria recently, and she called it an eye-opening experience. “As I listened to our Premier talk about what the government is doing for B.C. families, I was overcome with emotion because I’m not sure she really understands what privatization will mean for struggling families like mine.”
HEU says that 175 full-time, part-time, and casual positions are at risk in 11 Interior communities, and Bernardo repeated several times that the laundry service is widely acknowledged by IHA to be efficiently operated.
The room was filled with supporters for the laundry workers, and the Board themselves were very attentive during the presentation. “I certainly felt like everyone was listening and was engaged,” said Barnardo after the presentation. “The members of the Board that I was looking at certainly seemed very keen and interested in the presentation itself.”
IHA Board Chair Erwin Malzer said that no decision will be made until all the proposals were in and invited the HEU to make their own proposal as well.
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